Grave monuments are well known to those skilled in the art. Thus, by way of illustration and not limitation, reference may be had to design U.S. Pat. No. 259,369 of Splendora (which discloses a transparent monument containing a decorative object within it), design U.S. Pat. No. 310,419 of Morvant (which discloses a permanent photographic memorial marker), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,286 of Mochinski (a grave marker comprised of a lucite block), 3,962,836 of Carnes et al. (a grave marker with a transparent cover), 4,058,940 of McBrayer (a monument marker comprised of a clear plastic outer laminate), 4,202,144 of Patterson (a cemetery monument), 4,227,325 of Whitford (a grave marker comprised of a cylindrical chamber within which is mounted a picture), 4,259,381 of Narita (an ornament for burial monuments which contains a transparent body), 4,304,076 of Splendora (a transparent monument), 4,337,109 of Narita ( a process for preparing a burial ornament), 4,428,168 and 4,428,169 of Tomer (a permanent floral decoration for use on grave sites), 4,550,537 of Smith (a grave monument), and the like. The disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this patent application.
Many of the prior art monuments are solid devices made out of granite. They are heavy, expensive, and require a substantial amount of labor to construct and move. Furthermore, the granite monuments will often support the growth of vegetation (such as lichen, moss, and the like) and be subject to attack by acid rain. Despite the substantial costs of such monuments, they often within a period of about twenty years cease to serve their intended functions of indicating information about the individuals buried beneath them.
It is an object of this invention to provide a monument which is substantially less expensive to produce and easier to manipulate than prior art granite monuments.
It is another object of this invention to provide a monument which will not support the growth of vegetation as readily as do granite monuments.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a monument which is less subject to attack to acid rain than are granite monuments.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent upon a reading of this specification.